Hi Jay
Had the gadget today and after messing about trying to get it to work with an incorrect MIDI lead I went and bought a new lead and got it running straight away. Setup with the Korg keyboard was easy and in no time I was playing all the various sounds inside the keyboard with my guitar as a controller.
The Sonuus as stated is a
monophonic device and will only trigger single notes at a time which is no good if you want to trigger chords, but with a bit of technique you can arppegiate a chord. You need good technique with the single note runs too especially faster runs. But I thought overall this did what it was stated it was capable of and I generally like it and I like the way it controls the notes .. different to a piano keyboard and it does slides, hammer ons and pull offs too. I could also use the tremelo arm on the strat and it tracks that really well.
This is a great device for using your existing guitar as a MIDI controller, but clearly a
Polyphonic pickup like the upcoming Fishman Triple Play would be a better idea as it can do several notes at once and chord playing. I want a Fishman but they are not out for some months now so this is a stopgap solution.
I had no trouble playing lead lines with the Sonuus and managed a few Shadows lead lines too. It was great to hear the synths and Bass synths being used and I turned the octave down so I could play bass lines... no sweat at all it works.
For the money this is a neat solution (The Fishman will be around £250 or less and needs an add on box to use with MIDI connectors I understand) I paid around £65 off ebay
For bass get the Bass version though Jay as it will suit the bass PUs and tone better no doubt.
Is it perfect ... no but it is good with good technique and you can play quite fast runs with it. Your choice mate !
Posted: 11 May 2012, 16:04